Re: [groff] 08/21: [me]: Integrate better with papersize.tmac.

[Dave Kemper]

On 11/25/22, G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com> wrote:
> I did think of this.  I rapidly ran into a problem.
>
> I can't _find_ any historical -me documents.

I see that less as a problem and more as an interesting bit of trivia.
The lack of publicly available historical -me documents might hint at,
but not prove, a corresponding dearth of private ones.  We may not
currently be able to prove the existence of such documents, but we'll
never be able to prove their nonexistence.

In any case, we don't need specific documents in order to realize that
the change in default behavior will affect any such documents that
rely on that default.  ("Affect" here doesn't necessarily mean
"degrade" and in some cases might mean "improve.")

Still, as long as the release notes mention the default line-length
change, I think we're covered.  It looks like the relevant NEWS item
mentions that the default has _not_ changed for terminal output, but
doesn't say anything concrete about the typeset default.

> Yes; with it and the other defaults, you get a 1 inch left margin and a
> 1½ inch right margin.  I remember when English instructors would savage
> your paper and your grade with a fat-tipped red pen for such things.

Luckily for all those high schoolers trying to pad the page count of
their essays, groff offers much subtler ways of doing this than
adjusting the margins.

> I think I'd prefer to assume that people want 1 inch margins all around
> the page;

I agree.